Lamington Road, Mumbai 413112- Abeer Khan
Method Bandra is delighted to host "The Monsoon Room" by Red Earth. The Monsoon Room at Method, Bandra creates a moody haze around the city’s monsoon with photography, graphic, text/poetry, and monsoon-inspired merchandise. From documentative to meditative-expressive bodies of work, three young artists essay their own whimsical interpretations of the Monsoon in Mumbai in their highly individualistic styles.
About The Monsoon Festival
The Monsoon Festival is an initiative of Red Earth, that celebrates its 17th edition in 2022. A well-established cultural festival, with editions spanning Delhi, Mumbai, and Jaipur since 2006, it receives critical and popular acclaim. The multi-arts festival foregrounds the diverse experiences of India’s grandest season through multiple mediums of artistic creativity; rekindling classical sensibilities as well as celebrating contemporary expression. Red Earth is an independent arts organization based in Jaipur and Mumbai, which engages with diverse forms of cultural expression, from Indian contemporary art to design, performing arts, educational programmes, and other experiential projects.
Decoding the Mumbai Monsoon Experience
The festival re-appears in Mumbai after a long span; hence, in an attempt to reestablish its romance in Mumbai, this year the festival is themed around the Mumbai monsoon experience. The city has a rich monsoon culture unparalleled elsewhere in the country; and we believe that the festival will be of significant cultural importance, in being a landmark event that uncovers aspects of Mumbai's love-hate Monsoon experience; for the first time in this expansive way. The festival research and documentation centers around varied sub-themes that are intrinsic to the Mumbai monsoon experience: from landscapes and cityscapes; to the human experience and emotions attendant herein; objects and material culture; the matrix of cultural elements and tropes; and the dark side of the Monsoon. The festival explores themes of burning contemporary relevance, addressing several concerns of ecology, culture, and urban planning. Our varied multi-art events at prominent venues will create varied points of engagement across the city.
Sion Nature Park, Mumbai 400022 -Abeer Khan
Decoding the Mumbai Monsoon Experience
After the arrival of the monsoon (one of the world's most unique and complex meteorological phenomenon) at the shores of Kerala; the next landmark moment for the clouds truly, at least culturally, is the tryst with Mumbai. The natural topography of the island city, as well as the urban matrix of the city lends itself to creating a rich monsoon culture unparalleled elsewhere in the country. Festive, bountiful; invigorating (and providing relief from sultry climate-changed summers circa 2022); and yet troublesome, unwieldy, destructive and fierce; the monsoon creates a rich narrative in the maximum city. The love-hate relationship the city shares with India's grandest season is now already stuff of lore. In its 17th edition, having traveled over the path of the clouds, in Delhi, Jaipur and Mumbai; the festival re-appears in the city after 2006. Hence, in an attempt to reestablish its romance in Mumbai, this year the festival foregrounds varied Mumbai awakenings of the season.
What does the monsoon mean to Mumbaikars? Does the first sighting of the clouds entice the same joy here as it would in pastoral India? Can Mumbai Monsoon live upto the grand cultural edifice that the season creates in the North? Or it doesn't need to, creating a rich unparalleled Monsoon gestalt of its own? The festival uncovers some of Mumbai's un-documented but lived aspects of the Monsoon experience. Our art exhibition attempts to create this meta-narrative of Bombay loving and hating the rain; and the little nuances of Monsoon culture attendant therein. It attempts to create a map of monsoon experience in Mumbai; attempting to visually theorise varied elements thereof; possibly for the first time in this expansive way.
Date 28-09-2022
After the arrival of the monsoon (one of the world's most unique and complex meteorological phenomenon) at the shores of Kerala; the next landmark moment for the clouds truly, at least culturally, is the tryst with Mumbai. The natural topography of the island city, as well as the urban matrix of the city lends itself to creating a rich monsoon culture unparalleled elsewhere in the country. Festive, bountiful; invigorating (and providing relief from sultry climate-changed summers circa 2022); and yet troublesome, unwieldy, destructive and fierce; the monsoon creates a rich narrative in the maximum city. The love-hate relationship the city shares with India's grandest season is now already stuff of lore. In its 17th edition, having traveled over the path of the clouds, in Delhi, Jaipur and Mumbai; the festival re-appears in the city after 2006. Hence, in an attempt to reestablish its romance in Mumbai, this year the festival foregrounds varied Mumbai awakenings of the season.
What does the monsoon mean to Mumbaikars? Does the first sighting of the clouds entice the same joy here as it would in pastoral India? Can Mumbai Monsoon live upto the grand cultural edifice that the season creates in the North? Or it doesn't need to, creating a rich unparalleled Monsoon gestalt of its own? The festival uncovers some of Mumbai's un-documented but lived aspects of the Monsoon experience. Our art exhibition attempts to create this meta-narrative of Bombay loving and hating the rain; and the little nuances of Monsoon culture attendant therein. It attempts to create a map of monsoon experience in Mumbai; attempting to visually theorise varied elements thereof; possibly for the first time in this expansive way.
Date 28-09-2022
Oval Maidan, Mumbai 400032-Abeer Khan
Pahli Barsaat by Jaidev